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ILR 10 Years Long Residence | SET (LR) Application | Same Day Visa Service

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10 years long residency otherwise known as a long residency application, is part of the Immigration Rules. Post 9th of July 2012, the Home Office removed the 14 years long residency application however introduced a new private life application.

The purpose of this long residency application is to recognise a person ties to the UK over a long period, in this case, 10 years continuous residency. This demonstrates that once a person has resided in the UK for 10 years, they should be granted indefinite leave to remain, demonstrating their strong ties to the UK. There are different immigration policy related to those who has lived in the UK prior to 1st of January 1973.

Background to the long residency application

Until April 2003 there was no provision within the Immigration Rules for a person to be granted Indefinite Leave to Remain on the grounds of the long residence.

The "Long Residence Concession" allowed a discretionary grant of Indefinite Leave to Remain after 10 years continuous lawful residence, provided there were no serious countervailing factors. For the purposes of ILR under 10 years Long Residence category, the residence in the UK must be both continuous and lawful.

Following this, the Home Office on the 2nd of April 2007 introduced paragraph 276A1 and paragraph 276A2 of the Immigration Rules HC395. This was to allow a person to qualify under the Immigration Act 1971. Specified evidences were required to support the application under long residency. Failure to meet the requirements, allowed appeal rights to be generated & exercised before the First Tier Tribunal.

Requirements for long residence

When an application for long residency is lodged, there are certain requirements that a person must meet and here is in brief the requirements for the 10 years long residency application:

  1. You must have lived in the UK for a continuous period of 10 years and there are no broken periods.

  2. You must not fall for refusal under the general grounds of refusal. A number of long residency applications are refused because you did not meet this requirement.

  3. The knowledge of life requirements need to be met unless you have applied for an exemption. This can apply on the basis of your visa category or medical grounds. We advise you to take legal advice prior requesting an exemption on this requirement.

  4. You must not have one or more unspent convictions within the meaning of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

  5. Able to demonstrate that you have strong ties to the UK, which may include family and private life.

What is the definition of continuous residency under the long residency application?

It is, and remains, one of the most common grounds of refusal. First of all, we know that the Home Office removed the 28 days out of time application provision since 24th of November 2016. This meant that any periods of overstaying prior to that date, could be disregarded for the purposes of this application under long residency.

We move to the changes implemented on the 24th of November 2016, where paragraph 39E of the Immigration Rules was introduced.

Now coming back to the wording around “continuous residence”, this means residence in the UK for an unbroken period. For the purposes of the ILR 10 years long residence, a period is not considered broken if the applicant:

  1. was absent from the UK for six months or less at any one time, and

  2. had existing leave to enter or remain upon their departure and return.

The lawful residence is defined in paragraph 276A of the Immigration Rules as a period of continuous residence in which the applicant had one of the following:

  1. existing leave to enter or remain;

  2. temporary admission within section 11 of the 1971 Immigration Act where leave to enter or remain is subsequently granted;

  3. an exemption from immigration control, including where an exemption ceases to apply if it is immediately followed by a grant of leave to enter or remain.

Events that break continuous residence

ILR 10 Years Long Residence - Continuous residence is considered to be broken if the applicant has:

  1. been absent from the UK for a period of more than six months at any one time, or is absent from the UK for a shorter period but does not have valid leave to enter the UK on their return, or valid leave to remain on their departure from the UK;

  2. been removed or deported from the UK, or has left the UK following the refusal of leave to enter or remain

  3. left the UK and by doing so, showed a clear intention not to return;

  4. left the UK under circumstances in which they could have no real chance of returning to the UK lawfully;

  5. been convicted of an offence and been given a custodial sentence, or ordered to be detained in an institution other than a prison, such as a hospital or young offenders institute, not including suspended sentences;

  6. spent a total of more than 18 months outside the UK throughout the whole 10 year period.

Discretion for breaks in lawful residence

It may be appropriate for UK Visas and Immigration to use discretion if an applicant:

  1. has a short gap in lawful residence through making previous applications out of time by no more than 28/14 calendar days respectively, and;

  2. meets all the other requirements for lawful residence.

Early applications for long residency

It may be possible to apply for the 10 years long residency application early, however you must explain your reasons for that. It is likely that the Home Office may refuse your application for long residency if you have applied far too early.

Time spent in the UK as a family member of an EEA national

The Immigration Rules have not changed however discretion is being applied for those who are non EEA national living in the UK. EEA nationals may also apply for long residency unless they hold permanent residency.

Whilst an EEA national or their family member does not require a visa to remain in the UK, they must provide evidences that they meet the definition of Regulation 6 & 7 of the EEA Regulations 2016.

Getting advice on your application

ICS Legal can advise and complete the application of the ILR 10 Years Long Residence. If you wish to discuss about your application, you can speak to one of our Immigration Lawyers on 0207 237 3388 or you can email us your enquiry to info@icslegal.com. 

How to make an application for long residency under the 10 years?

The application is now available online and you can only apply for this once you are in the UK. It may be possible to apply from outside of the UK, however this depends on the reasons for your departure from the UK.

How long does a long residency application take to process?

Decisions on an application can take around 6 months, however it is possible to pay for a priority service and receive a decision quicker. Please note if you have a complex matter, i.e. you have overstayed your stay in the UK, then we do not advise on a priority visa service.

Related FAQ's

We specialise in Immigration Law, Human Rights Law, British Nationality Law & European Law (post Brexit).

Our Lawyers provide honest, trusted legal advice and exceptional service to all our clients. In return, we would expect all our clients to treat our professionals with courtesy and respect. 

ICS Legal provides our clients with initial advice, to program management and compliance services - bringing in value to what we deliver. 

Our speciality lies in the field of Immigration, Nationality and EU Law, so it means we always are dealing with this side of the law. We are able to support you in making a correct decision, avoid delays on your case, save money and time, not forgetting the stress of any doubts with your application.

There are many routes available to come to the UK, extend or switch, some of them do not allow extension or even switching. Knowing what is right can be a difficult task and this is why we are here. Simple task of not using the prescribed forms can mean your application is invalid, which means if you have no valid stay, you would have to return back and there is no appeal rights.

Our initial consultations are a chargeable service. We initially discuss the requirements of the application to ensure you meet the requirements and have the documentation required at hand for the submission. It gives you an opportunity to meet us and ask questions.

Each case will be checked thoroughly, everything will be cross referenced so guidelines are met and we will also add our legal document which would outline the Immigration Rules and how the client has satisfied the rules. We use documents that are used by Home Office case workers, so we know exactly what they would look for in your case.

The most important fact is that law constantly changes, policy guidelines and requirements are always changing, so it is best that you always use specialised services to support you. We never compromise our services, our fees remain very competitive but our expertise is at the very highest standard.

We are regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) - at the highest level which is Level 3 with JRCM licence. 

IAA which is the rebrand of OISC is the UK Government Regulated Body and it is a criminal offence if someone is providing Immigration advice without being regulated by the IAA.

Please visit our regulatory bodes page to find more information of government and other agencies which we listed by. Click here. 

Your Lawyer would take some background information regarding yourself. Relevant questions would be asked to ascertain whether your case can be handled by our team.

You will also be able to ask questions, understand what is required to meet the Immigration Rules, Nationality Law and EU Law where relevant.

Should we be able to provide assistance, your case worker will give you a customer care letter whereby it would outline the service agreement and the cost associated.

After each consultation we aim to provide a consultation report which would outline what was discussed, the action plan and what to do next.

We have a procedure in place for ensuring client confidentiality.

We keep the affairs of our clients and all information relating to our clients confidential, except where we are compelled to disclose information by reason of a legal or regulatory obligation.

A customer care letter from us will ensure that we outline the service we would be providing, it would also provide a break down of the costs associated so you can rest assure that there are no hidden charges and that fees do not go up unless changes are made (i.e. Home Office fees etc).

We place our clients first, so when you sign the customer care letter and we go through your case file, and we believe that the case would not be successful, we will terminate the agreement and return your documents.

We will also provide alternative solutions with no added costs. We also have a cancellation period should you feel you want to withdraw your file.

Please note that all cases cannot be guaranteed as circumstances depends and whether you met guidelines, however the Home Office caseworker can still refuse cases on the balance of probabilities and other factors.

Our job would be to prepare your case in the best possible way.

Yes, we do. ICS Legal other than fixed costs, offer our client's priority services in what we do including retainer services. 

As a private legal firm, we want to ensure we can provide the service you want. Our fees are very competitive and that is why we do not provide a No Win No Fee service as we do not feel the need to over charge our clients with such schemes.

With us, you will know exactly what we would be charging.

The fees are to be paid through cash or bank transfer. 

Home Office, third party including other costs not charged by us, will be confirmed when that is possible and are subject to changes. 

Our commitment to our clients is that we will update you every time we get an update from the Home Office. The waiting period can be a very daunting time as decisions can be life changing however the Home Office do set some guidelines on waiting times, but we intend to keep you updated throughout the process.
No, and this is the same even if you use a no win no fee service, it would be impossible for anyone to guarantee a successful application. The likelihood of an application being successful can be given based on previous cases or success rates, however we do not operate such a policy of selling our services based on previous applications.
We aim to ensure that this service is not used by any of our clients, but there are times where even with the best possible applications are unsuccessful. As we take our clients cases personally, we would like to provide a helping hand. We have designed an aftercare service whereby if your case fails, then your case worker would be able to help you look at other formalities of staying in the UK should you have valid leave still remaining or help you make an out country application. Please note should you require appealing on your matter, we can only deal with the initial appeal and your application will be straight away referred to an advisor who deals with representations.
It is vital that all our clients can provide honest feedback, we would encourage this and this helps us to become better on our service delivery.

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When you instruct ICS Legal, we will set out the scope of work. This will tell you the work we have agreed to complete and set out the charges. 

This means, we will tell you the services that are covered by the fixed costs work which we would set out in our email to you and the Client Care Letter (CCL). 

1. Our Terms of Business (TOB) can be found by clicking here. 

We are transparent in the ways we work. Please note, as you are buying professional legal advice, its important you understand our terms of working and what is being offered. 

ICS Legal operating model is line with how law firms operate - however please note each firm have their own process and policies. 

If you are unsure of what the scope of the work is or require more tailored advice & help, please email us at info@icslegal.com. We value our client's feedback. 

 

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